Carla Kihlstedt on ABC

Out of the blue, Carla Kihlstedt — violinist, composer, member of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, member of Cosa Brava (whose new album is on my to-do list), builder of necessary monsters — got a connection to ABC television.

She announced it to Twitter back on July 12: “My song ‘Hold My Own,’ is appearing tonight on an episode of @FinalWitnessABC…”

I’d never heard of the show. (It sounds full of sad endings, like what would happen if you used only the flashback scenes in a Cold Case episode.) But, wow. A musician of substance whom I admire gets played on ABC. That’s worth a grin and a toast.

Final Witness’ producers are serious about their music. They’ve got a music blog that explains the special songs they’ve picked for each episode — here’s the Carla Kihlstedt entry. They even talked to her about the song and the fact that she plays it on a violin with four “E” strings.

I haven’t heard of the other artists they’ve selected. My guess is that they’re all interesting enough to the point where Final Witness is doomed to be cancelled, because nothing that interesting stays on network TV for very long.

“Hold My Own,” by the way, is on the album Borrowed Arms by Kihlstedt’s band 2 Foot Yard. It’s a lovely yet powerful song, with a floating melody backed by vivid, fluttering violin and emotional cello notes. Very atmospheric. I’m really happy that they found and used this song.